


Someday Starts Today

by raendown



Series: NaNoWriMo 2020 Drabbles [61]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2021-01-28 22:51:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21399949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raendown/pseuds/raendown
Summary: Naruto's used to the people of the village treating him poorly. What he's not used to is getting a little help with that.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi & Uzumaki Naruto
Series: NaNoWriMo 2020 Drabbles [61]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1533161
Comments: 22
Kudos: 256





	Someday Starts Today

Naruto was tired. So far beyond tired he didn’t even know if there was a word for it but he sure did feel it. Determined as he always had been to prove his worth to the people of this village, he’d been working his butt off for the past three weeks to get as many D-rank missions under his belt as possible. Maybe if he did well enough he could impress Kakashi-sensei in to taking them on a C-rank. What he really wanted was the super secret, super difficult missions that the black ops soldiers got to go on but all the adults said he wasn’t ready for those yet.

Which he was. Naruto knew that he was the best ninja ever in the world; he was going to be Hokage someday!

All the confidence in the world didn’t refill his energy, though. No matter how often Sakura told him his energy was endless he did run out of steam every once in a while and generally that meant collapsing wherever he happened to be. Today it was on top of a wooden crate in the middle of a bustling market street when he was still only halfway home.

He’d always rather liked the market district. There were so many people here, so many different lives to observe, and he enjoyed the way he could blend in to the crowd like he really was one of them. When he was a little older and the old man Hokage finally let him go on better, more impressive missions he would show everyone around him that he did belong. He always had. This was just as much his village as it was theirs and he loved it maybe more than they did.

But that, unfortunately, was another ‘someday’ plan and on days like today it felt like a hundred years away. Even more so when a pair of shadows fell over him and Naruto lifted his gaze upwards to find two large men standing over him.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here?” one of them leered.

“Looks like a monster,” the other said. “But I suppose we won’t know unless we crack it open.”

“I’m not a monster!” Naruto cried. A quick look around told him that no one else in the crowd was paying them any attention and from experience he knew that wasn’t good. Lots of things could happen when no one was looking.

The first man laughed mockingly while the second folded his arms and growled, “Don’t lie to us. We know what you really are. Who knows what happens when the beast comes out. For all we know it could have taken over your body as soon as it was stuffed in there. Maybe you’re not even human anymore. Maybe you just never were.”

“I _am_ human,” Naruto insisted, his lower lip wobbling. He took another peek at the passing crowds but he already knew what he would find. If there was anyone who heard what these men were saying they weren’t going to waste their time helping someone like him. He wasn’t anybody yet. Nobody important, anyway, not like Sakura-chan or Kiba-kun or –

“Correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think either of your clan heads would be very impressed to hear about the way you’re treating a child that the Yondaime himself called a hero.” Kakashi-sensei’s voice was the most welcome music Naruto had ever heard in his life even if the crazy words spouting from under his mask made no sense. It was incredibly satisfying to watch both of his would-be attackers lose all color in their face and spin around with their limbs already shaking in fear.

Naruto wished his own limbs weren’t shaking as well. He would have cheered his sensei on.

It took only a casual tilt of Kakashi’s head to have the two men apologizing. A swing of his hand down in the general direction of his kunai holster had the both of them gibbering. When he reached up to scratch at his temple they both clearly thought he was reaching for his headband, or at least that was the only logical explanation Naruto could think of for why they had taken off running so fast. In their wake he realized his legs had given out from under him in the kerfuffle and he sat in the dirt looking up at a man he’d always thought looked through him just like everybody else.

“Are you alright, Naruto?” his sensei asked him. He nodded slowly. “What do you say to some ramen? I think I need to get the taste of idiocy out of my mouth.”

“Ramen? For real? Alright! You’re the best, Kakashi-sensei!”

“Maa, try to hold on to that thought for our next training session.”

Just like that Naruto was up and hurrying down the street, cheerful as though there had never been anything wrong in the first place. If he let the past stay with him like some people did he would never be happy and Naruto definitely preferred to be happy. There was no point if being anything but glad that Kakashi-sensei was there with him now to enjoy the day together at his favorite ramen stand. Naruto could think of nothing he would like better. 

Behind him where he wasn’t watching anymore, Kakashi watched two other figures disappear in to the crowd, marked their chakra signatures, and added another couple of names to a list he would never admit to keeping.


End file.
